"...On the other hand, this is one stupid patent I'd love to see held up, just so that the licensing fees could discourage advertisers from attacking their potential clients."
TERRIBLE idea! Bad law is not the way to solve bad behaviour. If this patent is issued and enforceable, we'll have far more fallout than just stupid pop-under ads.
"When will they learn that these memos always come back to haunt them..."
Hopefully never. These memos have been invaluable in showing the world (and the courts) how consistently underhanded and criminal MS has been all along.
If the retailer told you it was a CD, then maybe. If they told you it would play on your stereo, then maybe. If they called themselves a CD shop, and didn't have any actual CDs, then maybe.
But most retailers I know of are "music stores." Most staff would shrug and go "I dunno" if you asked them if it followed red-book specs. The retailer should have a MORAL responsibility, but they almost definitely don't have a LEGAL one. They'd have to work pretty hard to explicitly mislead their customers far enough to get in any trouble.
There's an interesting articleon C|NET about whether Apple should be responsible or liable. The answer is pretty clear: Should they be liable if you put a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in your CD tray? Well then, why should they be responsible if you put one of these things in?
What controls do you need in a car? They can be split into three categories:
1) Primary driving: Steering, accelleration, shifting, braking. 2) Secondary driving: Headlights, parking brake, ignition, wipers. (and probably transmission here, if it's an automatic) 3) Ancilliary: Climate control, stereo, mirrors (N.B.: you adjust your mirrors properly BEFORE driving, not while in transit!).
As far as driving gauges go, you need this: Speedometer, odometer, oil pressure, gas, temperature, and a high-beam indicator.
That's IT! Ideally to drive a car you need the gauges easily readable, the primary controls instantly at hand, and the secondary controls set apart a bit. The ancilliary controls should be separate and away from the others, but easily usable when the driver wants to play with stuff.
This joystick thingy isn't simple, isn't straightforward, and doesn't isolate the control groups. It fails at almost everything that a first year industrial design student could tell you about good control planning. It's an overly complicated solution to an overly cluttered environment.
Too bad, really. BMW is making more than a few weird and unappealing cars these days, and my cherished (and abused:-) '81 320i is looking more and more like a dying breed of cars designed to drive.
The US government would have a damned hard time stopping someone from buying it. First of all, it's not a weapon. Secondly, the gov't has a harder time stopping rich people from doing whatever the hell they want. (They have no problems stomping all over the other 98% of the population)
But as for what they'd do with it, they could EXPLORE! There is a lot of interest in a commercial space program in the US (and elsewhere), and this might be the impetus needed to get things moving. If you can't or don't dare fly it, then tear it down and use the technology in the private sector to build a new and innovative SSTO vehicle! Use your bloody imagination.
You can't gut anything that you're supporting and propping up. The MPAA is going to get richer and more powerful, and the price of tickets (and slimy popcorn, and watery pop, and...) for mediocre sequels to mediocre movies is going to go up as long as you happily throw your money and support behind them.
The same with the RIAA. It's time to start a guerrilla war against the media conglamorates. The only way to save culture and freedom is to destroy the pop-culture industry.
I was just about to email a buddy who's set up for downloading movies, and have him get this for us. I don't plan on watching it until after I've seen the theatre screening, and if it's any good I'll want a DVD of it most likely.
However, I'll be able to show it to people later and say, 'check out what we used to do. Isn't that cool?'
Sequels and comics. Comics and sequels. Can't anyone think up an original movie, just once?
Look at the Sci-fi/action stuff we've had lately or are getting soon: Spiderman (and sequel), the Hulk, Star Wars (episodes 2,3,7,8, and 9!), X-men (and sequel), etc. etc. etc.
The Matrix was actually a good and original movie, amazingly. They could have spent more time on the social aspects and ramifications instead of BIGGER GUNS, but that wouldn't be a box-office smash of course. However like all other franchises, once you hit paydirt you run it into the ground. The Matrix II is coming soon (as is MiB 2), and you can be sure that they'll keep grinding out sequels of sequels of sequels until people stop paying obscene amounts of money to see them.
It would be nice if someone came up with a good movie. A neat, well crafted, original, and complete movie. Unfortunately, it ain't gonna happen.
Harlan Ellison's "problem," is the same as it's always been. He's a cantankerous, paranoid, horny old man. (some would argue that he wasn't an old man 50 years ago, but I disagree). He has loudly and vociferously shouted his opinion from the rooftops for decades, and has an absolute compulsion about the use/control/reproduction of his writings.
He's also one of the finest authors of the 20th century--probably in the top five.
As for the Simpson's, I agree--what the hell have they been DOING lately??!
I admit it--I was being hopelessly optimistic. It's a flaw of mine.:-)
Most people can. Most people are actually quite smart, if you refuse to let them get away with being dumb. Unfortunately, we live in a society (world-wide as far as I can tell) that thrives on people being stupid, and acting stupid.
OK Chris, the bill is the European Union Copyright Directive. You got that right. It can be (and has been) abbreviated as the EUCD. Do you HAVE to dumb-down the article and call it the European DMCA? It's not the European DMCA, it's the EUCD. It's a different bill with similar aims. I'm sure the/. readers can understand that. Why can't you?
I remember when Transformers came out. It was about the time that I stopped watching cartoons. This was NOT a coincidence--Transformers were about as fun and clever as Hercules or any of the other terribly animated brainless cartoons. They seemed to exist solely to sell toys, clothes, and HappyMeals(tm).
Ironically, I find Saturday cartoons far more entertaining now. I think that everyone of my generation who got disgusted with the new state-of -the-art turned to writing cartoons with the same sort of humour and cleverness (not to mention animation quality, thanks mostly to computers) that we had 'back when.'
OK, mostly true. Here's something to consider, though.
You're a university. You have 30,000 undergrad students, faculty, staff, grad students, post-docs, etc., etc., etc.. There is, on average, one PC for every three people (just to pull a number out of a hat--it's probably more) on campus, and most of the individuals with their own machines (or even without!) have the ability to install software locally.
Are you going to guarantee me that every single copy of every single commercial software package on every one of those 10-15 THOUSAND computers is properly licensed? If a machine with Office95 has a hard drive blow up, are you sure that Office98 didn't get installed? Are you willing to gamble a few hundred thousand dollars on it, and incur an invasive three-month search to win that gamble?
While proper licensing for software is unquestionably a legal (and moral) necessity, it doesn't excuse the BSA's behaviour. They're thugs, plain and simple.
Regardless of the fact that it's a state law, rather than a national one...
It's the _police_ that can come in and search your house. The BSA is nothing but a private organisation, created to fuck with things they have no right to touch.
Hmm. So humans just are too minor to have any substantial effect? While the other things you say are true, that is TOTALLY over the top. Regardless of how the planet is going on its own, we're doing a fair bit to screw it up as well.
Just one comment: Your fair use policy ain't worth shit. The Various governments and the WTO have agreed to side with the media industry, and will let them fuck you over until you're bleeding from every pore in your body. Then they'll charge you for having the gall to try stopping them. $250,000 fines? Five years in jail? Seems fitting for someone who tried to stop the industry from protecting their "property."
You've got to understand (or not, if you'd rather not) that there are few things that bug many/.ers more than hype over truth.[1] If you were around and reading 16 months ago, you would have seen violent, cruel flame wars about the start of the new millennium. (not to mention the spelling flames)
Then of course, you have the underdog factor. The comparison between Edison and Gates isn't too far off, actually. (After all, Bill has done some real work in his life too!) Both managed to get ahead by stealing the thunder of other, possibly better inventors.
Finally, let's not forget the geographical factor. When an American gets credit for something that was done by a non-American, the ex-US subset of/. gets wildly up in arms! That's the price to be paid by being a modern empire. Ironically, in the days when Swan, Tesla, and Edison all lived, Edison would have been the underdog by virtue of geography.
[1] Unless it involves Linux. Oops. Forget I said that.:-)
In a nutshell, some have argued (rationally, not just talking out their ass) that 'cp' and 'cat' qualify. Not to mention tar, dump, and possibly i/o redirection.
What he's "babbling" about is that this law would explicitly ban him from installing whatever the hell he wants on his computer. That's the PURPOSE of this law!
1) IT departments don't generally have much to do with PDAs. Our company just (forcibly) rebuild our laptops with Win2k, and gave us permission to install PDA software on them if we wanted. No help or support for it at all, which is fairly typical in the industry.
2) I do in fact work in IT. In the defense of both of us, I was thinking of syncing to the PDA's desktop software, not Outlook. When you first install the software and first sync your PDA to it, then it definitely should work. I will concede, though, that a failed sync to Outlook isn't necessarily the fault of the PDA manufacturer.
Still, if he's done many reviews, and this is the first (only?) one that didn't sync, it's suspicious to say the least.
Slashdot Mirror
"... can easily look and feel just like CDE for those who want that."
:-)
That'd be precisely no one.
Honestly, since CDE first came out I have yet to hear a single person say they like it.
However, it _is_ good at multihead.
"...On the other hand, this is one stupid patent I'd love to see held up, just so that the licensing fees could discourage advertisers from attacking their potential clients."
TERRIBLE idea! Bad law is not the way to solve bad behaviour. If this patent is issued and enforceable, we'll have far more fallout than just stupid pop-under ads.
HELP!!!
This only confuses things further. What about the weekends? How about the weekends when the MPAA generates hype, but we have to work?
And then there's leap years. Don't even get me STARTED on leap years!
"When will they learn that these memos always come back to haunt them ..."
Hopefully never. These memos have been invaluable in showing the world (and the courts) how consistently underhanded and criminal MS has been all along.
Hmmm.
If the retailer told you it was a CD, then maybe. If they told you it would play on your stereo, then maybe. If they called themselves a CD shop, and didn't have any actual CDs, then maybe.
But most retailers I know of are "music stores." Most staff would shrug and go "I dunno" if you asked them if it followed red-book specs. The retailer should have a MORAL responsibility, but they almost definitely don't have a LEGAL one. They'd have to work pretty hard to explicitly mislead their customers far enough to get in any trouble.
There's an interesting articleon C|NET about whether Apple should be responsible or liable. The answer is pretty clear: Should they be liable if you put a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in your CD tray? Well then, why should they be responsible if you put one of these things in?
Bah!!!
:-) '81 320i is looking more and more like a dying breed of cars designed to drive.
What controls do you need in a car? They can be split into three categories:
1) Primary driving: Steering, accelleration, shifting, braking.
2) Secondary driving: Headlights, parking brake, ignition, wipers. (and probably transmission here, if it's an automatic)
3) Ancilliary: Climate control, stereo, mirrors (N.B.: you adjust your mirrors properly BEFORE driving, not while in transit!).
As far as driving gauges go, you need this:
Speedometer, odometer, oil pressure, gas, temperature, and a high-beam indicator.
That's IT! Ideally to drive a car you need the gauges easily readable, the primary controls instantly at hand, and the secondary controls set apart a bit. The ancilliary controls should be separate and away from the others, but easily usable when the driver wants to play with stuff.
This joystick thingy isn't simple, isn't straightforward, and doesn't isolate the control groups. It fails at almost everything that a first year industrial design student could tell you about good control planning. It's an overly complicated solution to an overly cluttered environment.
Too bad, really. BMW is making more than a few weird and unappealing cars these days, and my cherished (and abused
The US government would have a damned hard time stopping someone from buying it. First of all, it's not a weapon. Secondly, the gov't has a harder time stopping rich people from doing whatever the hell they want. (They have no problems stomping all over the other 98% of the population)
But as for what they'd do with it, they could EXPLORE! There is a lot of interest in a commercial space program in the US (and elsewhere), and this might be the impetus needed to get things moving. If you can't or don't dare fly it, then tear it down and use the technology in the private sector to build a new and innovative SSTO vehicle! Use your bloody imagination.
For my part...
YES DAMMIT!
You can't gut anything that you're supporting and propping up. The MPAA is going to get richer and more powerful, and the price of tickets (and slimy popcorn, and watery pop, and...) for mediocre sequels to mediocre movies is going to go up as long as you happily throw your money and support behind them.
The same with the RIAA. It's time to start a guerrilla war against the media conglamorates. The only way to save culture and freedom is to destroy the pop-culture industry.
Bragging rights is EXACTLY right!
I was just about to email a buddy who's set up for downloading movies, and have him get this for us. I don't plan on watching it until after I've seen the theatre screening, and if it's any good I'll want a DVD of it most likely.
However, I'll be able to show it to people later and say, 'check out what we used to do. Isn't that cool?'
Ye Gods!!!
Sequels and comics. Comics and sequels. Can't anyone think up an original movie, just once?
Look at the Sci-fi/action stuff we've had lately or are getting soon: Spiderman (and sequel), the Hulk, Star Wars (episodes 2,3,7,8, and 9!), X-men (and sequel), etc. etc. etc.
The Matrix was actually a good and original movie, amazingly. They could have spent more time on the social aspects and ramifications instead of BIGGER GUNS, but that wouldn't be a box-office smash of course. However like all other franchises, once you hit paydirt you run it into the ground. The Matrix II is coming soon (as is MiB 2), and you can be sure that they'll keep grinding out sequels of sequels of sequels until people stop paying obscene amounts of money to see them.
It would be nice if someone came up with a good movie. A neat, well crafted, original, and complete movie. Unfortunately, it ain't gonna happen.
"deleting competitors software?"
Kazaa is pretty close to this: Install it, and the bundled adware deletes your install of Ad-Aware.
"Installing backdoors so they can verify that your not using their software illegaly?"
Whether or not MS is prosecuting, XP has the ability to do this.
"Oh brave new world, that has such people in it!"
*sigh*
Harlan Ellison's "problem," is the same as it's always been. He's a cantankerous, paranoid, horny old man. (some would argue that he wasn't an old man 50 years ago, but I disagree). He has loudly and vociferously shouted his opinion from the rooftops for decades, and has an absolute compulsion about the use/control/reproduction of his writings.
He's also one of the finest authors of the 20th century--probably in the top five.
As for the Simpson's, I agree--what the hell have they been DOING lately??!
I admit it--I was being hopelessly optimistic. It's a flaw of mine. :-)
Most people can. Most people are actually quite smart, if you refuse to let them get away with being dumb. Unfortunately, we live in a society (world-wide as far as I can tell) that thrives on people being stupid, and acting stupid.
OK Chris, the bill is the European Union Copyright Directive. You got that right. It can be (and has been) abbreviated as the EUCD. Do you HAVE to dumb-down the article and call it the European DMCA? /. readers can understand that. Why can't you?
It's not the European DMCA, it's the EUCD. It's a different bill with similar aims. I'm sure the
I remember when Transformers came out. It was about the time that I stopped watching cartoons. This was NOT a coincidence--Transformers were about as fun and clever as Hercules or any of the other terribly animated brainless cartoons. They seemed to exist solely to sell toys, clothes, and HappyMeals(tm).
Ironically, I find Saturday cartoons far more entertaining now. I think that everyone of my generation who got disgusted with the new state-of -the-art turned to writing cartoons with the same sort of humour and cleverness (not to mention animation quality, thanks mostly to computers) that we had 'back when.'
Transformers? Bah!
OK, mostly true. Here's something to consider, though.
You're a university. You have 30,000 undergrad students, faculty, staff, grad students, post-docs, etc., etc., etc.. There is, on average, one PC for every three people (just to pull a number out of a hat--it's probably more) on campus, and most of the individuals with their own machines (or even without!) have the ability to install software locally.
Are you going to guarantee me that every single copy of every single commercial software package on every one of those 10-15 THOUSAND computers is properly licensed? If a machine with Office95 has a hard drive blow up, are you sure that Office98 didn't get installed? Are you willing to gamble a few hundred thousand dollars on it, and incur an invasive three-month search to win that gamble?
While proper licensing for software is unquestionably a legal (and moral) necessity, it doesn't excuse the BSA's behaviour. They're thugs, plain and simple.
Regardless of the fact that it's a state law, rather than a national one...
It's the _police_ that can come in and search your house. The BSA is nothing but a private organisation, created to fuck with things they have no right to touch.
(Translation: So Fucking What???)
This is an optional plug-in that no one is going to bother looking at. It's about as newsworthy as toe fungus.
Hmm. So humans just are too minor to have any substantial effect? While the other things you say are true, that is TOTALLY over the top. Regardless of how the planet is going on its own, we're doing a fair bit to screw it up as well.
Just one comment: Your fair use policy ain't worth shit. The Various governments and the WTO have agreed to side with the media industry, and will let them fuck you over until you're bleeding from every pore in your body. Then they'll charge you for having the gall to try stopping them. $250,000 fines? Five years in jail? Seems fitting for someone who tried to stop the industry from protecting their "property."
This isn't future paranoia. This is HERE, NOW!
You've got to understand (or not, if you'd rather not) that there are few things that bug many /.ers more than hype over truth.[1] If you were around and reading 16 months ago, you would have seen violent, cruel flame wars about the start of the new millennium. (not to mention the spelling flames)
/. gets wildly up in arms! That's the price to be paid by being a modern empire. Ironically, in the days when Swan, Tesla, and Edison all lived, Edison would have been the underdog by virtue of geography.
:-)
Then of course, you have the underdog factor. The comparison between Edison and Gates isn't too far off, actually. (After all, Bill has done some real work in his life too!) Both managed to get ahead by stealing the thunder of other, possibly better inventors.
Finally, let's not forget the geographical factor. When an American gets credit for something that was done by a non-American, the ex-US subset of
[1] Unless it involves Linux. Oops. Forget I said that.
In a nutshell, some have argued (rationally, not just talking out their ass) that 'cp' and 'cat' qualify. Not to mention tar, dump, and possibly i/o redirection.
Now THAT's scary!
Damn! I wish I had moderator points to give this post. Well done.
True laissez-faire capitalism is the cornerstone of objectivism, definitely not communism.
What he's "babbling" about is that this law would explicitly ban him from installing whatever the hell he wants on his computer. That's the PURPOSE of this law!
OK, let me go back then.
1) IT departments don't generally have much to do with PDAs. Our company just (forcibly) rebuild our laptops with Win2k, and gave us permission to install PDA software on them if we wanted. No help or support for it at all, which is fairly typical in the industry.
2) I do in fact work in IT. In the defense of both of us, I was thinking of syncing to the PDA's desktop software, not Outlook. When you first install the software and first sync your PDA to it, then it definitely should work. I will concede, though, that a failed sync to Outlook isn't necessarily the fault of the PDA manufacturer.
Still, if he's done many reviews, and this is the first (only?) one that didn't sync, it's suspicious to say the least.